The conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade shattered irreversibly the political and cultural unity of the Byzantine world in the Greek peninsula, the Aegean and western Asia Minor. This volume brings together western medievalists, Byzantinists and Ottomanists, combining recent research in the relevant fields in order to provide a holistic interpretation of this world of extreme fragmentation. Although the impact of the crusades on Byzantine history leading up to 1204 has been extensively examined in the past, there has been little research on the way crusading was implemented in Greece and the Aegean after that point. Far from being limited to crusading per se, however, the papers put it into its wider context and examine other aspects of contact, such as trade, interfaith relations, and geographical exploration.

Nikolaos Chrissis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Athens, Greece. Mike Carr is a Rome Research Fellow at the British School at Rome, Italy.

Contents: Preface, Jonathan Harris; Introduction, Nikolaos G. Chrissis and Mike Carr; Part I Frankish Greece between East and West: New frontiers: Frankish Greece and the development of crusading in the early 13th century, Nikolaos G. Chrissis; The Latin empire and Western contacts with Asia, Bernard Hamilton. Part II Byzantine Reactions to the Latins: Golden Athens: episcopal wealth and power in Greece at the time of the crusades, Teresa Shawcross; Demetrius Kydones' 'History of the Crusades': reality or rhetoric?, Judith Ryder. Part III Latins between Greeks and Turks in the 14th Century: Trade or crusade? The Zaccaria of Chios and crusades against the Turks, Mike Carr; Sanudo, Turks, Greeks and Latins in the early 14th century, Peter Lock. Part IV The Ottomans' Western 'Frontier': A Damascene eyewitness to the Battle of Nicopolis: Shams al-Din Ibn al-Jazari (d.833/1429), Ilker Evrim Binbas; Bayezid I's foreign policy plans and priorities: power relations, statecraft, military conditions and diplomatic practice in Anatolia and the Balkans, Rhoads Murphey; Conclusion, Bernard Hamilton; Index.